So i'm writing this to share both a funny moment involving my child last week and to get a bit of perspective if I need to try and do more about it.
My daughter who is 9 does synchronized swimming at a local club and has had a few issues with 'passing gas' at certain times. It's probably more fair to say that the girls where my dd goes to train at find farting a little too funny at times and just amongst us parents when your watching practice and one of the girls farts they all start to giggle and become side tracked. My daughter is a particular offender of this sort of behavior and I sometimes wonder if I should be doing more to prevent it?
Last week for example, her and a team mate were doing a duet routine at a comp when in the middle of it my daughter farted and her and her team up ended up fighting over the bubbles it caused. Another time her synchro swim team were sitting around their instructor preping for a routine when one of them ripped a fart out of nowhere lol.
I always thought little girls grew out of this sort of thing by this age, but I guess not! Does your daughter still find potty humour like this funny or should I just let this go?
Let it go. We all have gas, and she will probably be more discreet about it once she's aware of boys.
I am 36 and still think farts are funny.
L.
Yep, normal, and bear in mind -- physical activity can make some folks pass gas more readily; as they move around, they fart more easily sometimes. It happens in dance! My daughter and other girls in her dance studio sometimes, um, let one go but always by accident -- they wouldn't do it on purpose! and it might get a smile or even a giggle from them but they are too old and have danced too long to let it interrupt anything. Their teachers wouldn't stand for that -- but they are older than your daughter and her teammates.
The swimmers are being active so it's actually to be expected that some of them would fart just in the course of moving around so much. Don't make it more attractive to them by overreacting to every fart. Leave it in the coach's/instructor's ball court. If it's out of hand you may need to just ask the coach nicely, "I notice that the girls get distracted if one of them passes gas -- that's pretty typical but they seem to have trouble getting back on track..." IF that is true. If the coach handles it each time, let it be.
One thing does puzzle me, though -- did these girls actually end up "fighting over the bubbles" during a competition? Is that what you mean when you said that occurred "at a comp"?? Didn't the coach deal with it then and there, probably by reaming the girls after the routine? If the girls were indeed letting a fart and its bubbles interrupt a competition routine in front of judges and an audience, I'm very surprised if the coach didn't discipline them for not ignoring the fart and continuing as if it didn't happen.... Of course they're kids and it can be handled with humor and forbearance in practices, especially if the coach/instructor is good at turning things off with a joke and getting them back on track. But at a competition? Weren't they told off afterward?
As George Carlin once said, "Farts are funny, no matter who you are."
Sherry, if you can hold in gas during a car ride where there is no bathroom for miles, you have more control over your body functions than the average person.
OMG, this would drive me crazy!!! :) I do not find potty humor funny…and I know that kids totally do (and so does my husband!), but I would have a hard time with this.
That being said, I also do sometimes think kids need to figure things out for themselves and the coaches need to be addressing it if it's a real issue. So…I guess my advice would be this…yes I would talk to your daughter about it coming from the approach of not only being lady like but taking practice seriously. Don't make it a big deal, but address it. Secondly, I might ask the coach(es) privately if this is an issue as you've noticed from the sidelines and ask if they would like you to talk to your daughter about it
In our house it is absolutely not allowed to pass gas in a room where anyone else is. also not allowed to do it in the car although growing up they all thought it was funny to let one go silently in a car with closed windows. Now having said that when the kids were little they did think it was funny. But my mom used to make a big deal about how gross, uncouth and unmannerly it is to subject anyone else to your bodily functions. If you needed to pass gas you went to the bathroom. If you burped and didn't say excuse me immediately it was also cause for a lecture. I am a little more laid back about it but my boys all know not to do it. My daughter either. I would think that at 9 your daughter is old enough to know especially in a competitive sport that demands precision that she should not be doing this.
Sorry, how could farts in a pool not be funny? Especially when training for a stuffy synchronized swimming routine.
i dunno. yeah, it's bad to hold in farts and you can't always do it yada yada yada, but the fact is, farts smell bad and it's not okay to just let 'em rip. at some point everyone has to learn that it's stopped being funny, and you need to find somewhere private to pass the gas if you need to.
i don't think parents should make a federal case out of farting 9 year olds, but i do think it's parents' responsibility to teach kids social norms and expectations. and not everyone is okay with getting stunk out by your kids.
khairete
S.
Yeah, I am NOT A FAN of this trend. When did this become OK with everyone? I was never led to believe it was acceptable behavior in public AT ALL. And I don't remember other kids doing it either except for some scrappy boys AT HOME or playing with other kids out of ear shot of adults. Not in the venues where so many parents and teachers are posting so much about lately. WTH??! Which manners are going to slide next?!! Sorry to sound so crotchety, but NO, my 8 year old daughter does not do this EXCEPT home with her siblings. They all (2 girls and one boy) know it is NOT OK to do it "everywhere" like swearing and whatever else. They can't do it at the dinner table, or friends houses etc. YES, they would be in trouble if they did this at school or in Taekwondo or piano lessons or whatever!!! Not because I'm a big prude who doesn't see the "humor" but because I just can't abide the total loss of social standards. Gross.
It's not the type of thing they'll "outgrow", it's the type of thing they either believe is OK or not. It can be controlled. YES, once in a great while someone cannot stop one from escaping (and when that happens, it is funny). But how often does that really happen? There s a huge difference between thinking it's hilarious and doing it all the time on purpose and accidentally doing it.
My ex used to claim he "couldn't help it" when I'd be gasping for air all over the house....and I'd say, "Yeah, see that's so weird, because we dated for 4 years and you were able to control it just fine. I've also never seen you do it anywhere but in our house. Never at parties or weddings or...well..anywhere else. Funny how selective bowel control can be".
At that age, it's still funny. It's funny because it's embarrassing. And, because there's a whole team to laugh, that makes it even more laughable.
In a couple of years it will be different - or, if it isn't, you can drop hints about what potty humor is and isn't. If the levity is getting out of hand right now, the coach needs to tell the team so.
It really is the age. At some point, the kids will age out of it and it will just be embarrassing.
Here's the thing-- we are all human, we all pass gas, and trying to make people hold it is NOT good for the human body. Gas pains from holding that stuff in can cause vomiting... I have seen this firsthand. That gas has GOT to get out. Instead of making loads of rules about this, I'd have a gentle chat about "what do you think other people are thinking when (goofy behavior, 'fighting over the bubbles' ) happens? Do you think they are taking you seriously or are you acting like it's a joke?"
There was another question about this sort of behavior. Just wondering if we have forgotten what it was like to be kids, you know? At nine, to have to be 100% serious at sports practices and such? If it's all head-down, nose-to-the-grindstone and no play moments, it really doesn't sound like much fun.
My daughter is in middle school and it's still funny to her - I'm sure she would be embarrassed if it was HER who did it at school, but still, lol. She came home the other day (she is in the 6th grade btw) and told me at PE, as a boy was jumping up to make a shot w the basketball he farted (lol) - she said everyone, even the boy who farted busted out laughing. I think it is typical stuff.
It is funny. Let kids be kids.
